by The book, The Scientific Revolution, by Steven Shapin, outlines the scientific revolution, or lack thereof, from the 16th to 18th centuries, in three different sections. The sections explained the what, how, and why of the so-called period of scientific explosion. Although the focal point of the work is scientists and scientific discovery, significant technological advancement in the fields of communication and observation aided the scientists tremendously.
Without incredible advancements in communication during the scientific revolution, the scientists wouldn’t have been able to build off the observations and theories of others. Significant advancement in the distribution of scientific knowledge allowed theories to be challenged, and ideas to be shared. The specific invention of printing aided the spread of information in a major way. Previously, transcription of information allowed for some copy mistakes, and transcriptions took much longer than printing. Mass production therefore allowed for more and more people to get the information. As a result, there was more knowledge available around the world, and much of this knowledge challenged preconceived ideas and notions. Successful printing only came about in Europe in 1454. Italian explorer and writer Marco Polo saw the Chinese printing money back in 1298, and it had taken almost two hundred years for printmaking to come to Europe. There were several different forms of printing in the 15th and 16th century, but it had evidently been a great resource to spread knowledge, as Spain banned printmaking in their new world colonies in 1600. Common people were becoming educated, and Spain wanted power over the people in America. Printing only continued to gain in popularity throughout Europe, and information from across Europe and even other continents became available on large scales.
Not only were the ideas and observations spreading like wildfire through Europe, but new observations were made possible through technological advancements. In 1609, Galileo became the first person on record to point a telescope towards outer space (3). Galileo’s telescope was able to make out things like mountains and craters on the moon, something never seen before. In addition, as mentioned in Shapin’s The Scientific Revolution, Galileo was able to find spots on the sun, proving that it was not perfect. The telescope opened doors in astronomy that were never even seen before. Astronomers were able to find out more and more about the solar system, and were able to back up Copernicus’ geocentric model. In a similar vein to the telescope, the microscope allowed scientists to observe things beyond the human eye. The earliest microscope was created in 1590 by a Dutch scientist, Zacharias Janssen, and his son. Galileo in 1609 was the first person to design the compound microscope, and the term was coined in 1625 by Giovanni Faber (4). The microscope allowed scientists to make observations that they never could have dreamed of, and was a huge component of discovering cells and cellular biology.
The scientific revolution is typically headlined by scientific discoveries and major scientists, while the technological advancements truly fueled the revolution. Without great feats of technology such as printing and microscopes, scientific information would not have spread as quickly, or might not have even been observable.
Works Cited
- https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jep/3336451.0009.201/–communication-technology-and-the-evolution-of-knowledge?rgn=main;view=fulltext
- https://printinghistory.org/timeline/
- https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/9-12/features/telescope_feature_912.html
- https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1692-history-of-microscopy-timeline